F1 Academy champion Abbi Pulling on flying the flag for women’s racing aged 21, ambitions to become the first female on the grid in three decades, and why this Christmas has been the sweetest yet
- The Brit dominated F1 Academy and earned place at GB3 Championship for 2025
- She is aiming to become first woman since Giovanna Amati in 1992 to race in F1
- Pulling discussed F1 Academy’s impact, how she got into racing and future goals
Formula One is booming. On the back of the success of Netflix‘s popular Drive to Survive series, viewing figures for the sport have soared, raising the statuses of those competing at its summit.
And its fanbase has diversified. Around 40 per cent of those following the antics of Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and co are now believed to be women – a huge leap from just eight per cent in 2017.
Yet, for all the wild progress made amid F1 fever, the sport still features a male-only grid and has done for 32 years, since Giovanna Amati made three appearances in the 1992 season.
In 2014, Susie Wolff took her seat behind the wheel of a Williams car for the first practice of the British Grand Prix, becoming the fifth woman to participate in a race weekend. A decade later and the lack of a successor has been glaring.
Enter Abbi Pulling. The British driver has had a remarkable 2024, winning the F1 Academy, earning a place at next year’s prestigious GB3 Championship in the Rodin car, and even taking part in a Formula E test event for Nissan – and winning.
Could the 21-year-old finally end F1’s decade-long wait for a female driver? Mail Sport caught up with Pulling to ask exactly that, and how she plans to kick on after a breakthrough year.